A Forrester study recently found that nearly 90% of buyers are relying on AI to do the majority of their research. It’s safe to say that AI is here to stay, but how much should salespeople be using it?
Using AI is like having a junior analyst. They can be tremendously helpful for efficiency, but if you had a serious meeting coming up, would you rely on a junior analyst to do all the research for you?
So much of the beauty of professional selling lies in the work, taking the time to prepare a unique POV before speaking to a prospect. That is what will give you credibility with customers. With more and more people using AI for the majority of their work, the salespeople who put in their effort will be the ones to stand out.
On top of that, manual preparation is what gives you the confidence and belief in the value that your solution has to offer. When you find the information out for yourself, it makes things much clearer. When you then meet with customers, the preparation that you have put in demonstrates to them your credibility, because surely you wouldn’t put all that work in if it wasn’t going to be worth it for you and your customer.
AI can act as a supercomputer, taking in all the information that’s out there and making sense of it. However, because it can only work from what already exists, it can never act as a replacement for human ingenuity. A study from MIT recently found that people who lean too much on AI are getting worse at their craft.
Compare that to someone who focuses on honing their craft, constantly getting better. While AI can be a secret advantage, if you rely too much on it, it is a disadvantage – we’ve all been on the receiving end of an AI-heavy message.
Ultimately, you should use AI to empower your own ingenuity, not as a replacement for it.